It's Publication Day

Today is the day that Rosie is published. Hurrah. The books should be printed and sent out today to everyone, including me. My marketing assistant was going to check with the printers this morning to see if everything was OK now, as there was a delay yesterday in that a machine had broken down (typical was my reply). So hopefully it is now all systems go and I will get my free copies tomorrow in time for Saturday and me to try to promote my book at my local library and Holland and Barretts. I am at work today and brought in some healthy snacks for us all to eat and celebrate with me.

Must get on with some work, although hard to concentrate knowing today is THE day. I will probably hold some sort of launch party here over the weekend, so watch this space.

I'm on Amazon

Knowing that Rosie is out on Thursday, out of curiousity, I decided to have a look on Amazon and WHS websites to see if it's there - and it is. Another way of knowing that you have made it as an author - your book is on Amazon. The cover is there on Amazon but not on WHS. I got excited about it, sad I know. You can pre order it from both places but for those of you who will be invited to my launch (romna, wordpool and British SCBWI members) there will be a chance to buy it then.

Talking of my launch, nearly there. Have booked the venue and ordered nibbles. All I have to do is finalise the guest list and send it to Pegasus. Hope to do that within the next couple of days.

Back to work now.

Book launches

Ever since I heard that Rosie will be out this Thursday, I have been trying to organise a book launch. I have a probable venue and wanted food for my guests but what I wanted originally is going to be too costly. I wanted finger party food but it will cost too much for me and my publisher, so I think I'm going to have to go with nibbles. I will phone the venue tomorrow to find out if I can provide my own healthy nibbles or not. I did leave a message for the manager to phone me but she has now gone home.

Finalised details will come up hopefully later this week, and all invites will be sent by my publisher, once I have sent them the guest list after it has all been confirmed. Watch this space...

It's come!

What has come? The date for Rosie to be published. I found out yesterday that Rosie is being published next Thursday 30th April 2009, which is sooner than I thought as I was told May. I am now planning to have a launch party, probably in a room here at work as it's easier for me to arrange, and London Bridge is accessible to lots of people. More details to come.

So, I feel that means I have to work harder on Allie now and get it to Pegasus for them to see.

Keep reading this space.

More excitement

Last Friday I received a registration form from my publisher, Pegasus, for PLR (Public Lending Right) which really excited me. One of those things to me that proves I am now an 'author'. I have filled that in and it's gone recorded delivery today. I shall now have to register Rosie with the ALCS.

Another exciting thing happened. I keep forgetting I have a webmail account and have started checking it daily now. I was checking it yesterday and came across an email from the Assistant Editor of the web magazine 'Words and Pictures' which is run by the British SCBWI. She wanted to know if I would like to be included in the Members Accolades in the next issue. I repliled I'd be delighted too and have just emailed her the cover of Rosie to include in it. I am so excited. Fame at last, sort of. I will, of course, keep the page with me mentioned on it when it comes out and can't wait to read it.

I am still working hard on Allie, on what I hope to be the final draft. After this one, I intend to read every chapter again and then send it to Pegasus, in the hope they like that one too and accept it. Fingers crossed.

Must get on with some work now.

More foods

I am still trying different foods with this new eating regime. I have tried falafel again, and this time it tasted more moist and agreed with me. I've tried blackberry jam, and both my mum and I agreed that it didnt' smell or taste anything like the blackberry we remember. To me it didn't smell or taste of anything. Tried Linda McCartney's veggie sausages which were really nice and will have again. Next to try is damson jam. I like plums so I should like that. There is one drawback in all this though. Having cut out a lot of things, I have now discovered that one more food disagrees with me - onions. Too much onion makes me go to the loo too much (sorry prob tmi) so I have to cut those out for a while. I asked the nutritionist last week in my follow up chat to her about it, and she said that some people with digestive problems can have trouble with onions. I don't have that many onions but will cut them out for a while.

Must get on with work. See you soon - hopefully with news of my book launch.

An Inconvenient Truth

If you haven't watched the above film, I suggest you do. My mum and I watched it at the weekend and it certainly made me rethink about what we are doing to our planet. It was very interesting and very scary to watch. It told us that our C02 emissions have been going up every year since the 70s and within 50 years from now will go sky high. Parts of the Antartic and Greenland are already melting because of this and if Greenland melts much more then it could cause a major catastrophe in that the ice that melts will raise sea levels so high that it could flood and obliterate parts of the US and other countries. Already US and other countries that don't normally get floods have done so eg Hurricane Katrina and India. Also, if the temperatures get higher then we could be at risk from infectious diseases such as avian flu, which has already come over to this country, and infected by tropical insects. US have already had a battle with the pan beetle which destroyed tons of trees. And instead various birds and animals can become extinct. For instance, polar bears could die out due to their ice habitat melting and can't find homes, so end up swimming miles and possibly drowning to find another home, and I recently read the robins could die out due to the warmer weather appearing before time, so their newborns don't get the food on time to survive.

The thing that causes the most CO2 emissions is transport, noticeably cars. I am not going to preach or nag (although the above might seem like it) but please please if you use your car a lot, rethink about how you can use it less. Perhaps car share with neighbours/friends, use public transport more, don't use the car for very short journeys when you can walk or get a bus. I don't use my car very much, only when I really need it, like the weekly shop to Sainsbury's where buses don't go and it's too far to walk back with 5-6 heavy bags.

We only have one planet. If not for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren etc, please think about what we are doing. This is why I have written Allie, which is all about helping the environment and the little things we can do that can help.

Success at last

I've finally managed to do it - put the cover of Rosie on my website. I emailed the web masters asking what I could be doing wrong and they replied I should save pictures as jpeg. So today I scanned the picture again but saving it as jpeg, then added it then put it in, and it's now there for you all to see. Isn't it great? I just love it as it's the way I pictured it with Rosie in her uniform in front of school with the junk food below. I am so happy now. I will put the blurb on over Easter.

I still can't access my site on my home pc and will talk it over with my brother tonight to see what can be done about it. If I can't get a result then I will have to install the Kodak software onto my laptop and transfer all photos on there in future. Will let you know what happens. Meantime I am one happy bunny with a cold.

The other good thing that I happened to do is find the DVD of the Pilates video my mum and I had been doing until our VCR packed up. I found it on WHS site and have ordered it so now we can go back to what he had been doing properly. It wasn't the same doing it on our own with other music. I do prefer to go with a proper instructor. Shall tell Mum tonight and she will be happy too.

Must get on with work now.

A frustrating day

Today has been really frustrating for me. First, I tried to put the picture of the Rosie cover onto my website but no matter how much I try I can't do it. I put the photo of it on my pc at home but I now can't access my website on it due to the problem before. I think it was because I have an old hard drive and it crashed as I can access the website on other computers. There are possible solutions such as getting a new updated hard drive and installing the photo software on to my laptop. The second thing that went wrong is that a stationery order my colleague placed last week before she went on leave has gone missing and I can't track it down. Will probably have to order it again. Then the water company delivered our water but put the bottles that had to go in our main office next door on the floor by us so we had to get a male member of staff to do the job. Next time will check where they are put before signing. The last thing that went wrong was what I did the other day. I've been wearing a pedometer again and this afternoon as I leant to the side to do something I accidentally knocked it and cleared how many steps I'd done to that point. I think I have a rough guess, we shall have to see. I am going to go by what I usually do on a normal day, which is just over 7,000.

I am going to try to put the book cover picture on my site over Easter one way or the other. My problem is that I get impatient when I can't do a thing I want to do straight away when I want to do it. Have to learn to accept I can't do it right now.

Not long to go now before home, then one more day and I'm off for 5 days, having got next Tuesday off. So plan to do lots of work on Allie, esp finishing this current draft and starting the next and hopefully the final one.

Disaster over

The disaster is over now. I truly thought I'd destroyed my website yesterday with trying to download the image of the cover for Rosie but thankfully it was only temporary and it's now normal again. I sincerely thought I'd have to create another website for myself and am so pleased I don't. I think I am going to have to photograph the print out of the cover, which I've done, and try to get it on that way. Will try that tomorrow night at home, so you might not have to wait until Easter for it.

I am happy now.

Disaster!

Disaster has struck. I tried to download the image of the book cover for Rosie on to my website and it has deleted the site. All it comes up with now is a stripy screen saying 'Done, with error on page'. So I am sorry but the cover on the site is going to have to wait until Easter when hopefully I can get my site up and running again (or create another one) and put it on there somehow.

I am so disappointed and angry at this happening. It will go on there eventually.

Book cover for Rosie

I got an exciting email on Tuesday. Pegasus emailed me with the proof cover of Rosie and wanted me to check it. I did. The whole picture was what I asked for - Rosie in front of her school with the can of pop, crisps and burger below, but they put Rosie as having long dark straight hair and I envisioned her like me with short dark curly hair. I asked for this but they replied saying that they didn't think that it was up to date and wouldn't help sales, oh this was after they slightly amended the cover giving her shorter wavy hair. So I agreed and guess what - they replied saying brilliant, bang on target for May. May! Next month! Eek. Excitement and nerves stepping in here. For those of you who want to see the cover I will try to put it on my website this weekend under 'My Books.' Meantime I am busy thinking up a competition to put on my website for its release, which if I get to do book signings I will take slips to give out for it. Anything to up the sales of Rosie.

Meantime I am busy still on Allie, and now have to reenvision her as I'd thought of her like what they've put Rosie as. I might give her shoulder length blonde hair instead of dark.

Well, must get back to work now.